New suit design in progress: The Hardcase

[Costyn 0]

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Finally occurred to me a single square, japanese fanfolded just the right way creates a 3 cell wedge shaped wing with a perfect taper, all it needs is a frontskin. I'd already built that. After that it was just like assembling a cellphone, only with a lot more thread. If I can find a solution that elegant for the armwings this thing is going to be badass.
-B

Wow thats a great idea! That'll add to the structural rigidity of the wing as well, just like the crossbraces on a bridge (or a crossbraced canopy ).

Why don't you do the same thing for the arm wings?

Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

[lurch 0]

Ok.
Let the speculation begin.
The pics suck. Sue me. Obviously its incomplete. All the shit still hanging off it everywhere is scaffolding.
Whatever else happens, I was the first to build one of these. There may be others insane enough to imitate it, but there is only one original Hardcase.
And here it is.

-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[VectorBoy 0]

Please tell me the shop vac in the pictures isn't part of the in flight inflation system?

[Costyn 0]

Haha ok so you weren't kidding when you said you were using a motorcycle jacket.
What material is the blue stuff? Parapack?

Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

[lurch 0]

The shop vac is for sucking spilled beer and safety pins out of the carpet. Minimum infrastructural requirements for manufacturing a wearable aircraft in your living room. That, and a CD player and some lights, a fridge and cooking junk. The blue stuff is a mix of the light zero-p and that megasturdy parapack duck fabric paragear sells, that and a shitload of binding tape. Most of the spiral windings are spectra. The thighs, most of the front tailskin, top tailskin and lower center panel are ZP, the legsleeves, bootie/tail interface, lower top tailskin and tail/jacket interface panels are duck. The moccasin booties are spectra and leather. The jacket has a long and disreputable history since I got it off this weird indian guy at a flea market in what used to be a department store in some franchise ghetto plaza in Nashua 13 years ago. That history includes being the only jacket in history to have slimed a police officer in the line of duty, used to be used as body armor for paintball, sword practice, combat mountain biking, snowboarding and auto repair in harsh environments and has been heavily reinforced with nichrome wire and now spectra. It was once described by Tom Noonan as "So tough it could beat people up by itself" which led to it being dubbed the Dire Ninja Attack Jacket and thrown at people who annoy me. You haven't lived till you've walloped a friend over the head with a leather jacket full of junk, tools and packs of M&M's as a form of greeting.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[Costyn 0]

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The jacket has a long and disreputable history since I got it off this weird indian guy at a flea market in what used to be a department store in some franchise ghetto plaza in Nashua 13 years ago. That history includes being the only jacket in history to have slimed a police officer in the line of duty, used to be used as body armor for paintball, sword practice, combat mountain biking, snowboarding and auto repair in harsh environments and has been heavily reinforced with nichrome wire and now spectra. It was once described by Tom Noonan as "So tough it could beat people up by itself" which led to it being dubbed the Dire Ninja Attack Jacket and thrown at people who annoy me. You haven't lived till you've walloped a friend over the head with a leather jacket full of junk, tools and packs of M&M's as a form of greeting.
-B

Funny stuff, man!

Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

[bodypilot1 0]

I'd LOVE to see the pilots face if he see's you getting on his plane wearing that.....

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[IslandGuy 0]

Brian... seriously, if you don't write a book at some point in your life man, you will have missed your calling.

and... can't wait to fly with you in that thing... no spectator charge - right?
Mike

[lurch 0]

It is done.

I could fly it today but I won't... want to give it a week to debug it, find loose ends I missed. In any case I want to kind of savor the moment. You only get to finish your first suit once.
ETA first flight: 6 days.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[peggs82 0]

And thanks to the miracle of science we can see exactly what will happen... see attached...

just kidding lurch...don't get all up tight about it this time

oh...and...BEER!!!

[lurch 0]

...(yawn...) another "you're gonna crater", eh? You want to give me a hard time and THAT is the best you could do?
I'm insulted. MY crater would be MUCH cooler. A Lurch-shaped hole in the ground. Scraps of leather, stainless, zp, spectra, shredded videotape and feathers all over the place. Media taking notes. Congressional investigative committees spending billions to decide not to do anything about it. The DZ staff arguing furiously about who has to figure out how to fix the hole in the field or should we just mow around it? My friends all pissed off cause I escaped a beer debt and took my gear with me.
Freakin' amateur.

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[fasted3 0]

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It is done.

Frankensuit!!!

Nice job Lurch. I hope if flies as good as it looks.

But what do I know?

[mccordia 73]

This is one of those things where I know I shouldnt...but I did....

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[skyjumpsteve 0]

yep...that's 'bout what he looks like when he gets to the DZ before noon and hasn't had his java yet.

[VectorBoy 0]

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This is one of those things where I know I shouldnt...but I did....

Spookey...... you took that strange vision right out of the dark side of my brain.......twisted + campos for effect. I'm also seeing Marilyn manson in something like that.

[lurch 0]

Jarno, I laughed so hard I thought I was gonna yak in my crispix. That pic is fucking awesome.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[PhoenixRising 0]

Rob G said it was like a Tim Burton film: The Nightmare before pull time!!!

Funny stuff. but anyways I will be flying video on this things maiden voyage. Question.... do i break the champagne bottle on the suit while Lurch is in it. my vote is yes

Justin

Wingsuit organizing, first flight courses and coaching
Flock University
Tonysuits

[peggs82 0]

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Question.... do i break the champagne bottle on the suit while Lurch is in it. my vote is yes

Justin

[diablopilot 2]

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It is done.

I could fly it today but I won't... want to give it a week to debug it, find loose ends I missed. In any case I want to kind of savor the moment. You only get to finish your first suit once.
ETA first flight: 6 days.
-B

Holy shit, your style consultants must have been Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, and Rob Zombie...

Have fun!

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Jeff.Donohue 0]

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I will be flying video on this things maiden voyage.

Oh, man, this calls for at least three camera angles (you, me, Rick...).

For the record, I don't think Lurch will crater. I think he will somehow become the first case of human spontaneous combustion while in flight.

[lurch 0]

Ok you guys are gonna love the last bit... I just put the finishing touches on the main armwing cutaways. It was just velcro holding a zipper down and I didn't like it, pull the wings tight enough and I was able to force the zipper to start backing out, wing'd start to detach at the back of the wrist, just wasn't quite right. Spent some time sitting and thinking about ways to make that wing edge both easily detachable and multi-hundred-pounds worth of load bearing. The result: I combined the loops-through-loops mechanical advantage 3 ring release concept with a tiny closing pin design snugged up next to the zipper and velcro, invented a tiny one piece smooth chrome spring loaded closing pin about an inch long, diamond shapes about 4mm wide at both ends so movement just causes it to settle itself better, connected it to the zipper with a little slack.
All this is on a tiny scale, occupies 2 square inches and takes all the force I can load it with. Zero zipper creep now cause it makes the outer wing edge solid like a single piece and takes all the load off the zipper, but pops loose easily when and only when its pulled in the direction the zipper goes. Pretty much snagproof-its so small its sheltered under the zipper's profile and the pin itself goes in between the Spectra windings at the end of the sleeve, its smaller than the zipper tab right next to it. Its a minor pain in the ass to reassemble it after using it just cause getting the pin back in takes some wiggling, but when I tested it, it worked so unbelievably well I laughed my ass off. Its failure resistant several different ways-if the velcro snags fails or peels the pin keeps the wing locked and the zipper in place anyway... and even if the pin system fails, the original zipper and velcro setup underlying it will still resist coming apart since even without the pin, it takes a LOT of force to start forcing the zipper to back up and start unpeeling the velcro with it... after a couple inches the velcro bunches up and stops the zipper again before the failure goes catastrophic and allows the wing to come off. Backups within backups built into this design. I'm tickled pink, this may be one of the coolest tech tricks I've ever pulled off with real hardware. Pics coming when I get a chance.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[tr027 0]

In-flight pictures would be nice..

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[mccordia 73]

Ragardles of my photoshop joking...actually quite interested and especialy envious..making your own wingsuit is as cool as it gets!

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[lurch 0]

Thank you Jarno, seriously. I'm honored you guys care enough to bother commenting let alone whipping up stuff to tease with. So far I've taken the razzing and photoshopage as good natured hard-timing. I figured it must have made the wingsuit community sit up and take notice, especially when I actually BUILT the damn thing instead of just talking about it. Scotty Burns told me last season's suit hacks made far more of an impression than I was aware of, people worldwide asking him if he knew that guy and what the fuck is he flying, and that being the case I can only wonder what the silent majority thinks of THIS.
To be honest theres a part of me that still remembers first few jumps and is scared shitless... Many times I've bet my life on my own hacks and always won... but this time the commitment is absolute and irrevocable, the design is 100% new and unproven instead of derived or modified from existing known models, there is no "pull over and fix it by the roadside" and the penalty for failure is... total. Going out that door in that thing is going to take more sheer steel nerve than anything I've ever done or may ever do. I'll need all the moral support I can get.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[Martini 0]

You're welcome to borrow my morals. Both of them. Hell you can keep them, I never use them anyway. Good on ya for living the dream.

Sometimes you eat the bear..............